Hi,
I’m reporting an issue observed when using Whonix Gateway (sys-whonix) with Qubes Template Manager, initially discussed on the Qubes Forum Qubes Template Manager Slow Refresh. The Qubes community suggested this is a Whonix-specific issue, I was not participating in that discussion, just observing it. Since no one from the discussion has reported it here yet, so I’m bringing it here for further investigation.
When using Qubes Template Manager or the qvm-template list command in dom0 with sys-whonix as the update proxy, loading the template list takes 15–30 minutes. However, when using sys-firewall as the gateway, the list loads instantly.
In the Qubes template repository configuration (/etc/qubes/repo-templates/qubes-templates.repo), metalink URLs are used by default, while baseurl (including onion addresses) are commented out.
Some users report that uncommenting baseurl (using onion addresses) significantly speeds up the process, but baseurl may be out of sync, while metalink is more up-to-date.
I haven’t tested switching to baseurl myself but am relaying user reports from the Qubes discussion.
Could the Whonix team investigate this issue? Resolving it would greatly improve the experience for Qubes-Whonix users who depend on Whonix for critical privacy needs.
Thank you for your time and support!